If we had to guess, we’d say the most frequent topic of GOOD NEWS here on the Philebs is non-profits getting a whole bunch of dough. It’s hardly ever a bad thing, and this time is no different. The people at Impact100 Philadelphia — described as “a collective giving organization made up of Philadelphia area [...]

It was all over but the shouting, but now, even that is done: Mayor Nutter will sign Jim Kenney‘s LGBT Bill (Bill No. 130224) — the so-called “Transiest Bill Ever” — into law at 3PM today. There was never any real threat that this wasn’t going to happen, but that doesn’t make the news any [...]

The Knight Arts Challenge, which awards grants yearly to “the best ideas for engaging and enriching Philadelphia through the arts,” has gone and done it again, giving over $2 million to an incredible variety of projects, including: >>>A Month of Music Celebrates Philadelphia’s Jazz Heritage — Ars Nova Workshop To honor Philadelphia’s rich jazz legacy [...]

A couple of weeks back, Councilman-at-large Jim Kenney introduced an LGBT-equality bill intended to “‘plug the holes’ in the existing Philadelphia code as well as offer some significant reforms.” Among those reforms were: >>> Require the Mayor to report on the state of LGBT equality in Philadelphia, which must identify government services and policies providing [...]

As last year came to a close, we found out about the city’s plan to add a bike share program to Philadelphia in 2014. The Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities, they of mimes and signs, will be taking the first step towards making it all happen next week when they host “some of the [...]

The Porch at 30th Street Station really enjoys hosting events. In fact, they enjoy it so much that University City District — the people behind the whole thing — have announced “The Porch Partnership Programming Fund, a three-round $150,000 grant-making effort for Philadelphia nonprofits seeking to facilitate innovative arts and cultural projects at The Porch [...]

Remember back in January how, what with all the racist Mummery and the rest of it, we were saying that in Philly these days, it truly is US VERSUS THE SLOBS? Well guess what? On one day at least — last Saturday’s 6th annual Philly Spring Cleanup — we showed the slobs exactly what we’re [...]

The city department of Parks & Recreation‘s current big project, The Circuit, is going to take a while to complete. Currently, 300 miles of biking and walking trails are completed or in progress, with 450 miles still to go in the master plan to connect just about our entire area. And today, one more (small) [...]

This one comes to us courtesy of District Attorney Seth Williams, who uses Twitter for lots of things, thank you very much! 42 homicides in 2013 in Phila compared to 78 this day in 2102. 36 fewer a 46% reduction. 1 is too many & it is too early to claim victory. — Seth Williams [...]

A little while back, we filled you in on Startup PHL, the city’s initiative to “increase the availability of seed-stage capital for startups and accelerate the development of a supportive environment for entrepreneurs already in the city, as well as establishing Philadelphia as a city of choice for new startups and entrepreneurs.” Today, Mayor Nutter [...]

Since we thought just making the top 20 was GOOD NEWS, we figured this had to be too: Philadelphia was named one of five winners in the Blooomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge, winning $1 million “to implement its idea to create the Philadelphia Social Enterprise Partnership, a new effort to engage social entrepreneurs in working with [...]

In President Obama‘s State of the Union speech earlier this month, he enlightened most Americans to the fairly-horrifying fact thatwe have “nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country.” Seventy thousand! You’d think at least one or two of those are in our area, and we’re crossing these death traps every day? Well, it’s not [...]

Philly won’t be just expecting an early spring with yummy temperatures soon: The Philly Parks Alliance just got a huge payday of $2.675 million in a budget increase that will result in 63 new full time trade/maintenance jobs, 75 additional seasonal positions, and 900,000 clams for new equipment. Gold star for y’all, Parks Alliance. For [...]

Art is cool, right? And having no money is not, that’s obvious. Well, now you can pull out that crumpled-up ball of ones that you got for change for that coffee and exchange it for admission to the art museum. Beginning today, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is now offering expanded Wednesday night hours (5PM [...]

We know how it works. This city is becoming more and more known for its abundance of arts and culture, but when budget time comes, it’s snip, snip, snip. With that in mind, the Pennsylvania General Assembly has established the Pennsylvania Legislative Arts & Culture Caucus, with support from the Pennsylvania Arts & Culture Coalition [...]

Rep. Brian Sims, who many of you probably know is PA’s first openly gay legislator, is currently championing an anti-bullying bill in the PA State House, much like the superhero he is. The bill, which has the support of at least one member of the House’s Republican majority, seeks to train educators on the prevention [...]

We are not in Park City, Utah right now, which is to say we are not at Sundance. But the people from the Greater Philadelphia Film Office are there, and so is Tony Danza. Why? Because Tony Danza. And good ol’ Teach is there to help the GPFO announce the Derek Freese Film Foundation‘s “most [...]

According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, “the Bloomberg Philanthropies will give $3.3 million to Philadelphia to offer financial counseling for low-income residents.” In a move that will undoubtedly get Fast Eddie’s attention, the grant will go towards funding a Financial Empowerment Center, much like the ones in New York City, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg said [...]

From the PAWS Facebook page: In related news, the season premiere of HBO’s Girls airs this Sunday. So there you have it: The world is not totally made of shit. Have you got some good news? If so, send it to tips[at]philebrity[dot]com with “GOOD MOTHERFUCKING NEWS!” in the subject header — we’d love to hear [...]

We enjoy a good Christmas tree as much as the other guy (in fact, probably a whole lot more), but what do you do when Christmas comes and goes and that tree just ends up on the sidewalk? Well, why not treecycle it? The people at greenlimbs will be collecting Christmas trees at multiple locations [...]